Can Joseph Parker Become a World Champion Again?

After losing his last two fights to both Anthony Joshua and more recently, Dillian Whyte, many people will be doubting Parker’s place amongst the top current crop of heavyweights.

Despite having previously held the WBO World title.

It’s no secret that Parker had a far easier route to becoming a World champion than most of history’s most prestigious heavyweight champions had, as did Anthony Joshua, after Tyson Fury vacated all of the titles he won from the long reigning heavyweight king – Wladimir Klitschko.

However, a World title is a World title and once Fury vacated his belts it opened up a lot of opportunities for a lot of fighters.

Parker won his WBO strap with a Majority Decision win against Andy Ruiz and from what little bits I can remember, it was hardly an outstanding performance and from the judges scorecards it was not a real decisive win.

Two fights later and Parker beat Hughie Fury – the younger cousin of Tyson – although again that was another questionable victory, as many thought that Fury did enough to outbox and outscore the Champion from New Zealand.

Everyone knows what came next and Parker lost to Anthony Joshua at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff. In front of around 80,000 fans and almost 12,000 miles away from home, Joseph Parker failed the impress and never really got going against an unusually wary AJ.

Granted, the referee didn’t help Parker out in that fight, but none-the-less, the fight became a real stale-mate and left boxing fans bitterly disappointed.

However, last month Parker had another chance to make a statement over in the UK, against Joshua’s long time rival – Dillian Whyte.

Initially, Parker started off well, looking very confident behind his jab and letting his punches go with a real sense of speed, purpose and sharpness.

This exciting looking Parker began to fade however, and for the majority of the fight the former champion looked flat, demotivated and like a man who was already beaten.

What ignites a flicker of hope within me however, is the sharpness that Parker showed in the first few rounds accompanied by the same sharpness and that inkling of desire that he showed in the last round when he knew Whyte had no gas left in the tank.

If Parker can work on his psychology and get past that mental barrier that he quite clearly has, then I believe there’s a lot of potential there which could see him cause upsets amongst the giants of the heavyweight division.

This is an opinion that is probably not shared by most within the world of boxing, but when you think about how cagey Joshua was with Parker and how sharp Parker started against Whyte. You can see some potential and that this guy packs a punch, whilst carrying the speed alongside it that could catch any heavyweight off guard.

I’ve also seen footage of Parker hurting Joe Joyce before in a sparring session and for anyone that’s seen Joe Joyce, they know he’s a big; strong unit. The fact that Parker hurt him in a sparring session and that Parker has a solid chin, well, this gives me added hopes that Parker could come back one day in the future and regain his heavyweight crown.

Whether he does or not, is down to him and how much he’s willing to do to get it back.